1. Field of the Invention
With reference to the field of art as established in and by the United States Patent Office, the present invention is believed to be found in the General Class entitled, "Woodworking Tools" (Class 145) and more particularly in the subclass entitled, "hammers" (subclass 29 R).
2. Description of the Prior Art
Hammers are, of course, well known as they are probably one of the oldest implements used by man. The present array of hammers include ball-peen hammers as used by mechanics, claw hammers with nail pulling appliances and wrenches with hammer head portions. Hammers with heavy heads and the like or driving capabilities with plural faces are also known. Some attempts to provide an auxiliary drive have been devised. A careful pre-ex search was made in the above identified field of art but as far as could be determined in this careful study of the known hammers there was no provision of a hammer having an auxiliary striking capability. This auxiliary head is pivotally retained in a novel manner and this capability has a controlled release.
Although hammers are well known, a pre-ex search did not disclose hammers with auxiliary heads that can be precisely controlled as to the limit of swing, a detent so that the head is not actuated until the moment of impact or a locking together capability and last but not least, the actuation of the auxiliary head by spring actuated means. In the course of this search the following were noted: U.S. Pat. No. 148,240 to PECK of Mar. 3, 1874; U.S. Pat. No. 163,907 to ALGER on June 1, 1875; U.S. Pat. No. 327,131 to BRANDON on Sept. 20, 1885; U.S. Pat. No. 1,341,373 to KOMATAR on May 25, 1920 and Germany 232,168 on Mar. 9, 1911 to A HUNGER. These references do not show or teach the controlled auxiliary head of the present invention.